Search results for ""Debate""

Ancient states were rooted in agriculture, sedentism and population growth. They were fragile and prone to collapse, but there is no consensus on the causes or meaning of collapse, and there is an ongoing debate about the importance, nature and even existence of state-wide collapse. Explanations of collapse in terms of the competing mono-causal factors are found inferior to those incorporating dynamic, interactive systems. It is proposed that collapse should be explained as failure to fulfil the ancient state’s core functions: assurance of food supplies, defence against external attack, maintenance of internal peace, imposition of its will throughout its territory, enforcement of state-wide laws, and promotion of an ideology to legitimise the political and social status quo. To fulfil these functions certain necessary conditions must be met. The legitimacy of the political and social status quo, including the distribution of political power and wealth, needs to be accepted; the state should be able to extract sufficient resources to fulfil its functions such as defence; it must be able to enforce its decisions; the ruling elite should share a common purpose and actions; the society needs to reflect a shared spirit (asibaya) and purpose across elites and commoners who believe it is worthy of defence. Weaknesses and failure to meet any condition can interact to exacerbate the situation: maladministration, corruption and elite preoccupation with self-aggrandisement can induce fiscal weakness, reduced military budgets and further invasion; it can induce neglect of key infrastructures (especially water management). Inequality, a commonly neglected factor despite ancient texts, can erode asibaya and legitimacy and alienate commoners from the defence of the state. These themes are explored in relation to the Egyptian Old Kingdom, Mycenae, the Western Roman Empire (WRE), and the Maya. They all exhibit, to varying degrees, weaknesses in meeting the above conditions necessary for stability.

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This is a book about ideas. Specifically, this is a book about the evolution of a certain set of ideas, and how these ideas have come to dominate every important discussion about race, gender, and identity today. Have you heard someone refer to language as literal violence, or say that science is sexist? Or declare that being obese is healthy, or that there is no such thing as biological sex? Or that valuing hard work, individualism, and even punctuality is evidence of white supremacy? Or that only certain people—depending on their race, gender, or identity—should be allowed to wear certain clothes or hairstyles, cook certain foods, write certain characters, or play certain roles? If so, then you’ve encountered these ideas. As this reader-friendly adaptation of the internationally acclaimed bestseller Cynical Theories explains, however, the truth is that many of these ideas are recent inventions, are not grounded in scientific fact, and do not account for the sheer complexity of social reality and human experience. In fact, these beliefs often deny and even undermine the very principles on which liberal democratic societies are built—the very ideas that have allowed for unprecedented human progress, lifted standards of living across the world, and given us the opportunity and right to consider and debate these ideas in the first place! Ultimately, this is a book about what it truly means to have a just and equal society—and how best to get there.Cynical Theories is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller. Named a 2020 Book of the Year by The Times, Sunday Times, and Financial Times, it is being translated into more than fifteen languages.

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Defending the role that science must play in democratic society--science defined not just in terms of technology but as a way of approaching problems and viewing the world. In this collection of original essays, experts in political science, the hard sciences, philosophy, history, and other disciplines examine contemporary anti-science trends, and make a strong case that respect for science is essential for a healthy democracy. The editors note that a contradiction lies at the heart of modern society. On the one hand, we inhabit a world increasingly dominated by science and technology. On the other, opposition to science is prevalent in many forms--from arguments against the teaching of evolution and the denial of climate change to the promotion of alternative medicine and outlandish claims about the effects of vaccinations. Adding to this grass-roots hostility toward science are academics espousing postmodern relativism, which equates the methods of science with regimes of "power-knowledge." While these cultural trends are sometimes marketed in the name of "democratic pluralism," the contributors contend that such views are actually destructive of a broader culture appropriate for a democratic society. This is especially true when facts are degraded as "fake news" and scientists are dismissed as elitists. Rather than enhancing the capacity for rational debate and critical discourse, the authors view such anti-science stances on either the right or the left as a return to premodern forms of subservience to authority and an unwillingness to submit beliefs to rational scrutiny. Beyond critiquing attitudes hostile to science, the essays in this collection put forward a positive vision for how we might better articulate the relation between science and democracy and the benefits that accrue from cultivating this relationship.

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Taking a perspective rooted in evolutionary biology with a focus on brain science, two distinguished authors radically alter the fractious debate on the existence of God and the nature of religion. Two distinguished authors, renowned anthropologist Lionel Tiger and pioneering neuroscientist Michael McGuire, elucidate the perennial questions about religion: What is its purpose? How did it arise? What is its source? Why does every known culture have some form of it? Their answer is deceptively simple, yet at the same time highly complex: The brain creates religion and its varied concepts of God, and then in turn feeds on its creation to satisfy innate neurological and associated social needs. Brain science reveals that humans and other primates alike are afflicted by unavoidable sources of stress that the authors describe as "brainpain." To cope with this affliction people seek to "brainsoothe." We humans use religion and its social structures to induce brainsoothing as a relief for innate anxiety. How we do this is the subject of this groundbreaking book. In a concise, lively, accessible, and witty style, the authors combine zoom-lens vignettes of religious practices with discussions of the latest research on religion's neurological effects on the brain. Among other topics, they consider religion's role in providing positive socialization, its seeming obsession with regulating sex, the common biological scaffolding between nonhuman primates and humans and how this affects religion, and evidence that the palliative effects of religion on brain chemistry are not matched by nonreligious remedies. In a new preface to the paperback edition, Lionel Tiger discusses the paradoxical effects of religion-on the one hand, producing masterpieces of art and architecture and, on the other, fueling violence throughout history and into the present. This fascinating book provides key insights into the complexities of our brain and the role of religion, perhaps its most remarkable creation.

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Few Civil War generals attracted as much debate and controversy as Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard. He combined brilliance and charisma with arrogance and histrionics. He was a Catholic Creole in a society dominated by white Protestants, which made him appear exotic next to the likes of Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee.He was reviled by Jefferson Davis and often mocked by Mary Chesnut in her diary. Yet, he was popular with his soldiers and subordinates. Outside of Lee, he was the South’s most consistently successful commander, winning at Bull Run, defending Charleston in 1864, and defeating Benjamin Butler at Bermuda Hundred and Ulysses Grant and George Meade at Petersburg. Yet, he lived his life in the shadow of his one major defeat: Shiloh.Beauregard’s career before and after the war was no less tumultuous than his Civil War record. He was born among the Creole elite of Louisiana, but rejected the life of a planter in favor of the military, inspired by tales of Napoléon. He was considered a shining light of the antebellum army and performed superbly in the Mexican-American War. Yet, he complained about a lack of promotion and made a frustrating stab at being mayor of New Orleans in 1858.After the war, he was a successful railroad executive and took a stand against racism, violence, and corruption during Reconstruction. Yet, he was ousted from both railroads he oversaw and his foray into Reconstruction politics came to naught. Although he provided for his family and left them a hefty sum after his death, the money was mostly gained by working for the corrupt Louisiana Lottery.In Dreams of Victory: General P. G. T. Beauregard in the Civil War, Sean Michael Chick explores a life of contradictions and dreams unrealized—the first real hero of the Confederacy who sometimes proved to be his own worst enemy.

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Who invented the personal essay? That is hard to say. The ancient Roman philosopher and cynical power broker, Seneca? The 16th century French philosopher Montaigne certainly brought it to a peak of perfection. There were many 19th century masters, not so many after that. Who is the greatest living essayist writing in English? That requires no debate at all. It is unquestionably Joseph Epstein. He is not only the best living essayist; he is right up there in the company of Seneca and Montaigne, but one of our own, living in our era and dealing with our pleasures and travails. Epstein is penetrating. He is witty. He has a magic touch with words, that hard to define but immediately recognizable quality called style. Above all, he is impossible to put down. Epstein reads omnivorously and brings us the best of what he reads, passages that we would never have found on our own. How easy it is today, in the digital age, drowning in emails and other ephemera, to forget the simple delight of reading for no intended purpose. Like any master essayist, however, this one brings us more than the shared experience of a lifetime of reading. He brings us himself, alternately scolding and charming, sparkling and deep, buoyant and sad, zany and wise, rebellious and conservative, bookworm and sports fan, clever and everyman, debunker and preservationist, deep into high culture, deep into low culture, curious, fresh, and settled in his ways. This is the friend we all wish we could have, the ideal, humane companion who is completely comfortable in his own human skin. Like Plutarch, he gives us life teaching by example, but with a wry smile and such a sure hand that we hardly notice the instruction. It is pure pleasure.

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Drawing from legal and extralegal discourse but focusing on imaginative literature, Literary Executions examines representations of, responses to, and arguments for and against the death penalty in the United States over the long nineteenth century. John Cyril Barton creates a generative dialogue between artistic relics and legal history. He looks to novels, short stories, poems, and creative nonfiction as well as legislative reports, trial transcripts, legal documents, newspaper and journal articles, treatises, and popular books (like The Record of Crimes, A Defence of Capital Punishment, and The Gallows, the Prison, and the Poor House), all of which were part of the debate over the death penalty. Barton focuses on several canonical figures-James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lydia Maria Child, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Theodore Dreiser - and offers new readings of their work in light of the death penalty controversy. Barton also gives close attention to a host of then-popular-but-now-forgotten writers - particularly John Neal, Slidell MacKenzie, William Gilmore Simms, Sylvester Judd, and George Lippard - whose work helped shape or was shaped by the influential anti-gallows movement. Analyzing the tension between sovereignty and social responsibility in a democratic republic, Barton argues that the high stakes of capital punishment dramatize the confrontation between the citizen-subject and sovereign authority in its starkest terms. In bringing together the social and the aesthetic, Barton shows how legal forms informed literary forms and traces the emergence of the modern State in terms of the administration of lawful death. By engaging the politics and poetics of capital punishment, Literary Executions contends that the movement to abolish the death penalty in the United States should be seen as an important part of the context that brought about the flowering of the American Renaissance during the antebellum period and that influenced literature later in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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For most of the second half of the twentieth century, the United States and its allies competed with a hostile Soviet Union in almost every way imaginable except open military engagement. The Cold War placed two opposite conceptions of the good society before the uncommitted world and history itself, and science figured prominently in the picture. Competing with the Soviets offers a short, accessible introduction to the special role that science and technology played in maintaining state power during the Cold War, from the atomic bomb to the Human Genome Project. The high-tech machinery of nuclear physics and the space race are at the center of this story, but Audra J. Wolfe also examines the surrogate battlefield of scientific achievement in such diverse fields as urban planning, biology, and economics; explains how defense-driven federal investments created vast laboratories and research programs; and shows how unfamiliar worries about national security and corrosive questions of loyalty crept into the supposedly objective scholarly enterprise. Based on the assumption that scientists are participants in the culture in which they live, "Competing with the Soviets" looks beyond the debate about whether military influence distorted science in the Cold War. Scientists' choices and opportunities have always been shaped by the ideological assumptions, political mandates, and social mores of their times. The idea that American science ever operated in a free zone outside of politics is, Wolfe argues, itself a legacy of the ideological Cold War that held up American science, and scientists, as beacons of freedom in contrast to their peers in the Soviet Union. Arranged chronologically and thematically, the book highlights how ideas about the appropriate relationships among science, scientists, and the state changed over time.

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The revolutions sweeping the Middle East provide dramatic evidence of the role that technology plays in mobilizing citizen protest and upending seemingly invulnerable authoritarian regimes. A grainy cell phone video of a Tunisian street vendor's self-immolation helped spark the massive protests that toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and Egypt's "Facebook revolution" forced the ruling regime out of power and into exile. While such "Liberation Technology" has been instrumental in freeing Egypt and Tunisia, other cases - such as China and Iran - demonstrate that it can be deployed just as effectively by authoritarian regimes seeking to control the Internet, stifle protest, and target dissenters. This two-sided dynamic has set off an intense technological race between "netizens" demanding freedom and authoritarians determined to retain their grip on power. "Liberation Technology" brings together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars and practitioners at the forefront of this burgeoning field of study. An introductory section defines the debate with a foundational piece on liberation technology and is then followed by essays discussing the popular dichotomy of "liberation" versus "control" with regard to the Internet and the sociopolitical dimensions of such controls. Additional chapters delve into the cases of individual countries: China, Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia. This book also includes in-depth analysis of specific technologies such as Ushahidi - a platform developed to document human-rights abuses in the wake of Kenya's 2007 elections - and alkasir - a tool that has been used widely throughout the Middle East to circumvent cyber-censorship. "Liberation Technology" will prove an essential resource for all students seeking to understand the intersection of information and communications technology and the global struggle for democracy. Contributors: Walid Al-Saqaf, Daniel Calingaert, Ronald Deibert, Larry Diamond, Elham Gheytanchi, Philip N. Howard, Muzammil M. Hussain, Rebecca MacKinnon, Patrick Meier, Evgeny Morozov, Xiao Qiang, Rafal Rohozinski and Mehdi Yahyanejad.

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On February 18th, 2009, Sean Delonas published a controversial cartoon in the New York Post depicting two policemen shooting and killing a monkey with the caption: “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” On the adjoining page was a photo of President Barack Obama signing this very piece of legislation into law. Although public debate over the cartoon has centered entirely on its potentially racist overtones, we might ask from a Darwinian perspective how the stereotype of the black ape works to disavow a universally shared human apehood. How might we comprehend animality in non-pejorative terms? Whereas in contemporary race and sexuality studies the topic of animality emerges almost exclusively in order to index the dehumanization that makes discrimination possible, Bestial Traces argues that a more fundamental disavowal of human animality conditions the bestialization of racial and sexual minorities. Hence, when conservative politicians such as Senator Rick Santorum equate homosexuality with bestiality, they betray an anxious effort to deny the animality inherent in all sexuality. Focusing on literary texts by Edgar Allan Poe, Joel Chandler Harris, Richard Wright, Philip Roth, and J.M. Coetzee, together with philosophical texts by Derrida, Heidegger, Agamben, Freud, and Nietzsche, Peterson maintains that the representation of social and political others as animals can be mitigated but never finally abolished. Insofar as humanizing the abject only vacates the structurally empty and infinitely transposable position of “the animal,” he argues that all forms of belonging—no matter how open and hospitable they are toward others—inevitably produce “beasts” whose exclusion contradicts our apparent desire for nonviolence. While one might argue that absolute political equality and inclusion remain desirable—even if ultimately unattainable—ideals, Bestial Traces shows that by maintaining such principles we exacerbate rather than ameliorate violence precisely by failing to confront how discrimination and exclusion condition all social relations.

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Catholicism and Liberal Democracy seeks to clarify if there is a place for Catholicism in the public discourse of modern liberal democracy, bringing secular liberalism, as articulated by Jürgen Habermas, into conversation with the Catholic tradition.James Martin Carr explores three aspects of the Catholic tradition relevant to this debate: the Church's response to democracy from the nineteenth century up until the eve of the Second Vatican Council; the Council's engagement with modernity, in particular through Gaudium et spes and Dignitatis humanae; and Joseph Ratzinger's theology of politics as a particularly incisive (and influential) articulation of the Catholic tradition in this area.Jürgen Habermas's theorization of the place of religion in modern democracy, both in his earlier secularist phase and after his 'post-secular' turn, is evaluated. The adequacy of Habermas's recent attempts to accommodate religious citizens are critically examined and it is argued that developments in his later thought logically require a more thoroughgoing revision of his earlier theory. These developments, it is argued, create tantalizing openings for fruitful dialogue between Habermas and theCatholic tradition.Using analytical tools drawn from communications theory, the debates on same-sex marriage at Westminster and in the Irish referendum campaign are analyzed, assessing whether Catholic contributions to these debates comply with Habermasian rules of civic discourse. In light of this analysis, the prospects of, and impediments to, Catholic participation in public discourse are appraised.Carr concludes by proposing a Ratzingerian critique of contemporary attempts to redefine marriage within a broader, more fundamental critique of the modern democratic state as currently configured. A political system founded upon secularist monism cannot but regard Christian Gelasianism, and its Catholic variant in particular, as an existential threat. Thus, Catholics, however Habermasian their political behavior, can never be more than uneasy bedfellows with modern liberal democracy.

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On August 19, 1958, Clara Luper and thirteen Black youth walked into Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City and sat down at the lunch counter. When they tried to order, they were denied service. As they sat in silence, refusing to leave, the surrounding white customers unleashed a torrent of threats and racial slurs. This first organized sit-in in Oklahoma—almost two years before the more famous sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina—sparked other demonstrations in Oklahoma and other states. Behold the Walls is Luper’s engrossing firsthand account of how the movement she helped launch ended legal racial segregation. First published in 1979, Behold the Walls now features a new introduction and 33 newly selected historical photos. Luper’s direct, unvarnished account captures the immediacy of the events she witnessed. As a Black woman, Luper refused to let either her race or her gender deter her from stepping forth as a leader. Born in 1923, Clara Luper taught history in Oklahoma public schools and led the NAACP Youth Council. The students who sat in at Katz Drug and other businesses belonged to that organization. Luper highlights the contributions of others, especially young people, in breaking down the walls of segregation in Oklahoma through numerous demonstrations, marches, and voter registration campaigns. This commemorative edition of Luper’s eye-opening autobiography, published near what would have been her 100th birthday, as well as the 65th anniversary of the sit-ins, offers invaluable insight into the history of protest in the early years of the civil rights movement. With racial inequality still at the forefront of national debate, Behold the Walls places Luper’s efforts in the larger national context of the struggle to resist injustice and inspire positive change.

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Laughter that makes your stomach hurt, the perfect cup of coffee, a few moments alone with your Bible - these are moments of joy to be found on even the most difficult days. When you know you can trust God no matter what, lasting joy will be yours. Find your joy in Simple Joys: Discovering Wonder in the Everyday by Candace Payne.Who hasn’t struggled with discontent, being overwhelmed, and the fight to be happy? You know that you have much to be grateful for, but sometimes the world feels so heavy and it’s hard to recognize the good stuff, let alone find and experience true, lasting joy.Candace Payne, better known as “Chewbacca Mom,” reached more than 200 million people when her surprise outburst of joy at the simplest pleasure of a Star Wars mask went viral. Her story of struggling with loneliness, discontent, and unhappiness came out soon after, which made the world question: What makes her different?“I could write a million words, books, and even songs to explain this,” Candace says, “but my gut feeling tells me you didn’t buy this book for a theology debate. You are reading these pages hoping to find joy - real, authentic, and unwavering in any and all circumstances. The kind of contentment that says, ‘I’m not only happy, but I’m satisfied as well. I have enough and I am enough.’ Because what I’ve discovered is this: contentment will often lead to more joy.”Do you have that kind of joy?Do you want it?Find the secret to happiness, satisfaction, joy, and more in Simple Joys, a beautiful, full-color book that walks you through Candace’s journey so that you can replicate it in your own life. Read about several simple ways you can reclaim joy in your day-to-day routine and start living more joyfully today.

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The Meditations on the Life of Christ was the most popular and influential devotional work of the later Middle Ages. With its lively dialogue and narrative realism, its poignant and moving depictions of the Nativity and Passion, and its direct appeals to the reader to feel love and compassion, the Meditations had a major impact on devotional practices, religious art, meditative literature, vernacular drama, and the cultivation of affective experience. This volume is a critical edition, with English translation and commentary, of a hitherto-unpublished Italian text that McNamer argues is likely to be the original version of this influential masterpiece. Livelier and far more compact than the Latin text, the Italian “short text” possesses a stylistic and textual integrity that appears to testify to its primacy among early versions of the Meditations. The evidence also suggests that it was composed by a woman, a Poor Clare from Pisa—an author whose work McNamer contends was obscured by the anonymous Franciscan friar who subsequently altered and expanded the text. In bringing to light this unique Italian version and building a case for its origins and importance, this book will encourage a fresh look at the Meditations and serve as a foundation for further scholarship and debate concerning some of the most compelling subjects in Italian and European literary and cultural history, including the role of women in the invention of new genres and spiritual practices, the early development of Italian prose narrative, the rise of vernacular theology, and the history of emotion. McNamer’s volume will be of significant interest to medievalists, especially those who study medieval women, devotional literature, manuscript studies, and textual criticism. The linguistic analysis expands that audience to include those of a philological bent.

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Legend and BeliefDialectics of a Folklore GenreLinda DéghAn acclaimed folklorist asks "What is legend?"Legend and Belief is a descriptive and analytical study of the legend, the most prolific and characteristic form of folklore in contemporary Western civilization. Not that the legend does not have ancient roots; like the tale, the joke, the ballad, the proverb, and mummery, it was also a part of an archaic preindustrial tradition. But the legend—as old as conversation and debate, and similarly questioning the human condition—was able to survive technological innovations. It has remained contemporaneous, whereas many other genres succumbed to their own anachronism. The legend's concerns are universal and eternal, touching on the most sensitive areas of our existence. That is why stories about supernatural encounters, possessions, divine and infernal miracles, evil spirits, monsters, and prophetic dreams, as well as horror stories about insane and criminal agencies, inundate the urban/industrial world. Industrial advancement does not change the basic fragility of human life, while commercialization and the consumer orientation of the mass media have helped legends travel faster and farther. Legends are not only communicated orally, face-to-face, but also appear in the press, on radio and TV, on countless internet websites, and by e-mail to keep alive new waves of the "culture of fear."Linda Dégh, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Folklore at Indiana University, is a folklorist/ethnologist whose speciality is the analysis of personally observed creative processes of narration in both traditional and modern communities of Europe and North America. Her numerous publications include Four Lives: People in the Tobacco Belt; Folktales and Society; American Folklore and the Mass Media; and Narratives in Society.June 2001496 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, index, append.cloth 0-253-33929-4 $49.95 s / £38.00

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2018 International Book Awards Finalist in "Business and Management" Category We shop for everything else online…why not benefits? Using private benefit exchanges (a.k.a. “online benefits marketplaces”), employers can bring a consumer-centric online shopping experience to benefits. Alan Cohen, a benefits technology pioneer, details how these platforms can offer unprecedented flexibility and choice to employees, revolutionize the way employers attract and retain talent, strengthen cost control in an era of skyrocketing premiums, and promote much-needed innovation in the U.S. health care system. Discover How To Make sense of today’s challenging benefits landscape and plan breakthrough changes that have succeeded for thousands of employers of all sizes Leverage the lessons of the online shopping revolution to drive radical innovation Incorporate the 7 key pillars of a true private benefits exchange into your benefits mindset Gain indispensable practical insights from early adopters’ experiences Clarify the new roles of employers, HR, insurers, brokers, employees, and other stakeholders Accelerate your transition away from inefficient employer-managed plans Assess the ongoing impact of health care reform, public exchanges, health care consumerism, and other trends Alan Cohen created one of the first private exchange platforms and has pioneered this approach for more than a decade. Now, in a candid discussion of how the economic principles of choice, consumerism, and defined contribution are at work in an exchange environment, he breaks down the concept for HR professionals, entrepreneurs, brokers, insurers, health care reformers, policy makers, and employees. Cohen looks to social and economic implications to forge a future in which all eyes are on a new model of the consumer for the benefits age. With insights from industry veterans, Employee Benefits and the New Health Care Landscape brings a fresh perspective to the debate on health care and health insurance in America.

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First ever critical study of Tolkien’s little-known essay, which reveals how language invention shaped the creation of Middle-earth and beyond, to George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones. J.R.R. Tolkien’s linguistic invention was a fundamental part of his artistic output, to the extent that later on in life he attributed the existence of his mythology to the desire to give his languages a home and peoples to speak them. As Tolkien puts it in ‘A Secret Vice’, ‘the making of language and mythology are related functions’. In the 1930s, Tolkien composed and delivered two lectures, in which he explored these two key elements of his sub-creative methodology. The second of these, the seminal Andrew Lang Lecture for 1938–9, ‘On Fairy-Stories’, which he delivered at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, is well known. But many years before, in 1931, Tolkien gave a talk to a literary society entitled ‘A Hobby for the Home’, where he unveiled for the first time to a listening public the art that he had both himself encountered and been involved with since his earliest childhood: ‘the construction of imaginary languages in full or outline for amusement’. This talk would be edited by Christopher Tolkien for inclusion as ‘A Secret Vice’ in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays and serves as the principal exposition of Tolkien’s art of inventing languages. This new critical edition, which includes previously unpublished notes and drafts by Tolkien connected with the essay, including his ‘Essay on Phonetic Symbolism’, goes some way towards re-opening the debate on the importance of linguistic invention in Tolkien’s mythology and the role of imaginary languages in fantasy literature.

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Important world institutions, such as the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have publicly recognizing the highly interconnected nature of our world and therefore the relevance of systemic thinking and cybernetics as leading knowledge foundations to deal with the complexity of economic, social, and environmental issues. This recognition was the driving force of the Internet discussions held by participants to the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics 18th Congress, which last September 27 to 29(WOSC 2021). More than ever we needed to debate and develop current ontological, epistemological, and methodological approaches to the understanding of the future of humanity.WOSC organized this event in collaboration with the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Scientists of this Academy together with scientists from all over the world made contributions to improving communications beyond particular nation states and regions toward the clarification of global issues like governance, health, education, technology, art, and others. Our aim in WOSC 2021 was bringing together scientists and researchers to collaborative debates at all levels from local communities to global societies. At the end of the Congress, scientists were invited to submit contributions to this Springer Nature book, along the following four themes: firstly, philosophical and methodological foundations for the development of the systems approach and cybernetics; secondly, the cybernetics of society, ecology and governance; thirdly, digital technologies and physical realities merging into a hybrid reality , and fourthly, the transdisciplinarity of systems sciences and cybernetics applied to the further development of knowledge areas, such as education, embodiment of social policies, and the arts. About 25 contributions were accepted for publication in this book. We see this as one of WOSC’s important contribution to the scientific community around the world.

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Electricity and Magnetism (E&M) underlies many lifesaving medical devices, such as magnetic resonance imaging scanners, neural stimulators, and heart pacemakers. But E&M also attracts its share of bogus health claims, such as biomagnetic therapy. How do you separate the good from the bad? Sometimes it’s not easy: experiments are prone to artifacts, theories are limited by assumptions, and clinical trials can result in ambiguities. In this book, the author separates the wheat from the chaff, showing which applications of E&M are bogus and which are not. This book takes the reader on a tour through a range of fascinating phenomena, from effects that are constant in time at one extreme, such as transcranial direct current stimulation of the brain, to the millimeter-wave whole-body scanners which are familiar to frequent flyers at the other. Along the way, the author looks in depth at the dispute about power line magnetic fields and leukemia, a case study in what can go wrong when dubious claims inflame unjustified fears. The debate about cell phones and brain cancer still rages today, particularly for the microwave frequencies encountered with new 5G technology. Recently, the so-called Havana Syndrome has been attributed to microwave weapons, but the underlying biophysics of such weapons is unclear. For all these encounters with electricity and magnetism, the author, an eminent biophysicist, uses science and evidence to sort out fact from fantasy. This book is aimed at general readers who want to make sense of the mysterious and often controversial ways in which E&M interacts with the human body. It is also ideal for students and professionals in bioscience and health-related fields who want to learn more without getting overwhelmed by theory.

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The subject of love, in all its forms, has interested poets in every age and culture: its common consequences, namely marriage and parenthood, less so. John Elinger, author of this collection of poems on the challenging theme of how to be a 'good enough' parent, is an exception to the rule. This sequence of one hundred sonnets (with footnotes) is based on his own experience as a father of six children (and now a grandfather and step great grandfather), extensive study and reflection on what he has come to understand as perhaps the most important, and certainly the most challenging, role of our lives: parenthood. He writes: 'Good parenthood is best expressed by three / Core qualities, acceptance, care and trust, / The key components of what's meant by love.' (4) And: 'More care (not extra cash) is what the world most needs: / A parent, whose priority is love, succeeds.' (96) The poems range across a number of topics related to parenthood: nurture and nourishment, exercise, stimulation and sleep, time, talk and tenderness, love (of course) and listening, the home and environment, and the importance of parental devotion to the duty of care. The poet argues that, while parenting is a lifelong responsibility, its nature and demands alter over time, and good practice changes during the 'seven stages' of parenthood. The analysis of 'good-enough' parenting is both instructive and entertaining, written with, compassion, wisdom and poetic verve. Not everyone will agree with all the views expressed, and some may disapprove strongly of some of the assertions; but if the book serves to stimulate a public debate of the nature and importance of the principles and practice of good parenthood, it will have served its purpose.

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A range of approaches (literary, historical, art-historical, codicological) to this mysterious but hugely significant manuscript. Extravagantly heterogeneous in its contents, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 86 is an utterly singular production. On its last folio, the scribe signs off with a self-portrait - a cartoonishly-drawn male head wearing a close-fitted hood - and an inscription: "scripsi librum in anno et iii mensibus" (I wrote the book in a year and three months). His fifteen months' labour resulted in one of the most important miscellanies to survive from medieval England: a trilingual marvel of a compilation, with quirky combinations of content that range from religion, to science, to literature of a decidedly secular cast. It holds medical recipes, charms, prayers, prognostications, magic tricks, pious doctrine, a liturgical calendar, religious songs, lively debates, poetry on love and death, proverbs, fables, fabliaux, scurrilous games, and gender-based diatribes. That Digby is from the thirteenth century adds to its appeal, for English literary remnants from before 1300 are all too rare. Scholars on both sides of the vernacular divide, French and English, are deeply intrigued by it. Many of its texts are found nowhere else: for example, the French Arthurian Lay of the Horn, the English fabliau Dame Sirith and the beast fable Fox and Wolf, and the French Strife between Two Ladies (a candid debate on feminine politics). The interpretationsoffered in this volume of its contents, presentation, and ownership, show that there is much to discover in Digby's lively record of the social and spiritual pastimes of a book-owning gentry family. SUSANNA FEIN is Professor of English at Kent State University. CONTRIBUTORS: Maureen Boulton, Neil Cartlidge, Marilyn Corrie, Susanna Fein, Marjorie Harrington, John Hines, Jennifer Jahner, Melissa Julian-Jones, Jenni Nuttall, David Raybin, Delbert Russell, J.D. Sargan, Sheri Smith

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In Government Versus the Market, Roger Middleton provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary and controversial analysis of how Britain's relative economic decline from the late nineteenth century onwards generated an intense debate about the legitimate roles of government and the market. After a thorough analysis of Britain's long-run economic performance in a comparative context, which emphasizes how the problem of decline is frequently misunderstood, and an account of the long-run forces promoting and constraining government growth, he then charts how the economic role of government evolved in response to decline but produced a mix of macroeconomic and microeconomic policies which proved inadequate for the task. This major study emphasizes the institutional and political constraints to economic modernization and uses the specific characteristics of Britain's predicament, a combination of market failure and impotent state, to explain why by 1979 the burgeoning New Right were able to launch an attack upon big government. Dr Middleton then demonstrates how Britain's subsequent economic performance, while brilliantly propagandized as an economic renaissance, has in fact been lacklustre and why the Conservatives' economic strategy failed to address the underlying problems of decline and to reduce the size of the public sector. Government versus the Market brings an unrivalled historical, empirical and theoretical breadth to our understanding of the last century of British economic history as well as a wealth of material on economic performance and public sector growth, and the fullest bibliography yet published on Britain's economic decline.Comprehensive, authoritative and wide-ranging, this extensive study uses a long-term and comparative framework which draws upon the latest research of economists, historians and political scientists to show why successive governments have been unable to halt Britain's relative economic decline.

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With an ever-growing number of users, the Internet is central to the processes of globalization, cultural formations, social encounters and economic development. These aside, it is also fast becoming an important political domain. Struggles over disclosure, access and governance are only the most visible signs that the Internet is quickly becoming a site of fierce political conflict involving states, technical groups, business and civil society. As the debate over the global politics of the Internet intensifies, this book will be a valuable guide to anyone seeking to understand the emergence, organization and shape of this new issue. In this vivid study, Mikkel Flyverbom captures how questions about the digital divide and the information revolution, dialogues with stakeholders, and networked forms of organization have become key features of the global politics of the Internet. Tracing the making and stabilization of this transnational issue in and around the United Nations over almost a decade, this book demonstrates how multi-stakeholder networks make new political domains accessible and unsettle established ways of organizing transnational governance. The Power of Networks offers a rich account of the practices and effects of organizing global politics and governance through dialogues and collaborations among governments, business and societies the world over. Offering a novel analytical vocabulary for the study of ordering, governance and organization in global politics, and its relationship to the growth of the Internet, this innovative ethnographic study of hybrid organizations and entangled forms of power in global politics shows how insights from actor-network theory and the Foucauldian governmentality literature can reinvigorate studies of transnational governance and organizational processes. It will appeal to anyone interested in emergent network issues in global politics, as well as practitioners and researchers focusing on multi-stakeholder processes, and students and scholars searching for a fresh perspective on organization, power and global politics.

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This book discusses the impact of taxation on economic growth, employment, investment, consumption and the environment. The public finance literature commonly distinguishes between three major functions of taxation: the traditional function of raising revenue to finance government expenditure; the distributional function as an instrument to alter the distribution of income and wealth amongst households; and the regulatory function that uses taxation at the benefit of stabilization and other economic policies. Especially after the Second World War, OECD countries have increasingly used taxation to achieve a variety of economic and social objectives. Today many governments use the tax system to stimulate economic growth and employment. Fiscal measures also play a role in creating a favourable climate for business investment and to promote a long-term sustainable environmental policy. Currently, in the debate on global warming, the use of tax instruments to tackle climate change is on the top of the international agenda.The authors aim to provide the reader with the necessary empirical information, while at the same time presenting an overview of the latest theory and best practices. In doing so, many relevant policy issues are touched upon. Based on theoretical and empirical studies and practical experiences in OECD countries, the book establishes guidelines for effective tax policy. The book offers tools for tax design in a globalising economy and the world of the internet with increasing tax competition and a growing battle for companies and brains between countries. The book also presents a 'carrot and stick' model to promote clean technologies, reduce pollution and combat climate change. The message from the authors is straightforward: broad, low, simple, and a shift from income to consumption taxation. These principles are illustrated in a concept proposal for a so-called Second Life Tax system.

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A collection which highlights "the range and richness of scholarship on medieval warfare, military institutions, and cultures of conflict that characterize the field". History 95 [2010] The journal's hallmark of a broad chronological, geographic, and thematic coverage of the subject is underlined in this volume. It begins with an examination of the brief but fascinating career of an armed league of (mostly) commoners who fought to suppress mercenary bands and to impose a reign of peace in southern France in 1182-1184. This is followed by a thorough re-examination of Matilda of Tuscany's defeat of Henry IV in 1090-97. Two pieces on Hispanic topics - a substantial analysis of the remarkable military career of Jaime I "the Conqueror" of Aragon (r. 1208-1276), and a case study of the campaigns of a single Spanish king, Enrique II of Castile (r. 1366-79), contributingto the active debate over the role of open battle in medieval strategy - come next. Shorter essays deal with the size of the Mongol armies that threatened Europe in the mid-thirteenth century, and with a surprising literary description, dating to 1210-1220, of a knight employing the advanced surgical technique of thoracentesis. Further contributions correct the common misunderstanding of the nature of deeds of arms à outrance in the fifteenth century, and dissect the relevance of the "infantry revolution" and "artillery revolution" to the French successes at the end of the Hundred Years War. The final note explores what etymology can reveal about the origins of the trebuchet. Clifford Rogers is Professor of History, West Point Military Academy; Kelly DeVries is Professor of History, Loyola College, Maryland; John France is Professor of History at the University of Swansea. Contributors: John France, Valerie Eads, Don Kagay, Carl Sverdrup, Jolyon T. Hughes, L. J. Andrew Villalon, Will McLean, Anne Curry, Will Sayers

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Exactly when Matisse and Picasso first met is open to debate. Their earliest encounter may have taken place during the Matisse retrospective at Galerie Druet right before the 1906 Salon des Indépendants. The latter marked the first time all the Fauves exhibited together. The centerpiece was Matisse’s monumental Le bonheur de vivre. Leo Stein bought the painting while the Salon was still running, regarding it as “the most important work of our time.” This opinion undoubtedly annoyed Picasso. Jealousy of the other man’s success goaded him to greater innovations. In his view, the new art would have to match the sense of endless discovery that science and technology were offering. The 1900 “Exposition Universelle” had already shown the latest marvels in engineering. If painting wanted to keep the public’s attention, instead of merely reproducing what the eye saw, it had to generate its own reality on the surface of the canvas, a reality more vivid than, and bearing only the mostcursory resemblance to, anything found in nature. Matisse was also a catalyst in that he was the one who introduced Picasso to African sculptures. Max Jacob recalls: “Matisse took a black, wooden statuette from a table and showed it to Picasso. It was the first piece of Negro wooden art. Picasso held onto it all evening. The next morning, when I arrived at the studio, the floor was strewn with sheets of paper, and on each sheet was drawn the head of a woman; all of them were more or less the same: one eye, an oversized nose attached to the mouth, and a lock of hair on the shoulders. Cubism was thus born” (cited in Janine Warnod, Washboat Days [New York: Grossman Publishers Warnod, 1972, p. 128]).

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Globally, the way the animal production industry copes with infectious diseases is changing. The (excessive) use of antimicrobials is under debate and it is becoming standard practice to implement thorough biosecurity plans on farms to prevent the entry and spread of pathogenic micro-organisms. Not only in farm animal production, but also in facilities where companion animals are kept, including in veterinary practices and clinics, awareness of the beneficial implications of a good biosecurity plan has raised. The book Biosecurity in Animal Production and Veterinary Medicine is the first compilation of both fundamental aspects of biosecurity practices, and specific and practical information on the application of the biosecurity measures in different animal production and animal housing settings. The book starts with a general introductory chapter on the epidemiology of infectious diseases, followed by a chapter explaining the general principles of biosecurity. Specific topics of biosecurity, including rodent and insect control, cleaning and disinfection, hygiene and decontamination of feed, drinking water and air, and measuring the biosecurity status of farms, are detailed in dedicated chapters. Explanations on the relevance of the implementation of biosecurity plans in order to improve animal health and performance and reduce antimicrobial usage are described, and a chapter on ways to motivate farmers to implement a biosecurity plan has been included. Practical chapters deal with biosecurity in the poultry, pig and cattle industry, horse facilities, dog kennels, veterinary practices and clinics and laboratory animal facilities. The book is a practical guide that can be used by farm and animal facility managers, consultants, veterinarians, animal caretakers, and people with an interest in prevention of diseases in animals. Academics and students will benefit from the book because it contains all relevant information on animal biosecurity.

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This unique Handbook provides multiple perspectives on the growth of illicit trade, primarily exploring counterfeits and internet piracy. The expert contributions, drawn from the private sector, the legal community, and leading enforcement and anti-counterfeiting agencies, cover a wide range of topics including the evaluation of key global enforcement issues, government and private-sector initiatives to stifle illicit trade, and the evolution of piracy on the internet. The authors also assess the efficacy of anti-counterfeiting strategies such as targeted consumer campaigns, working with intermediaries in the supply chain, authentication technology, and online brand protection. Offering a succinct and up-to-date overview of country initiatives to stem illicit trade in China, Mexico, and the US, the book addresses key global enforcement issues. It illustrates the unique problems facing key industry sectors and expands on a comprehensive and timely debate on the growing problem of illicit trade on the internet, highlighting distinct aspects of piracy in the music industry. The persistent problem of botnets, malware, and `malvertising' is discussed, along with an overview of the various issues associated with online brand protection. Furthermore, a variety of anti-counterfeiting measures are presented that target both the demand and supply of illicit trade, complemented by an examination of their relative effectiveness. This accessible, provocative, and timely synopsis of counterfeiting and illicit trade will be of great value to academics and researchers of law, criminology, and trade. It will also be an excellent resource for government agencies, policymakers, and private-sector managers in those industries most affected by this growing and pervasive problem.Contributors include: S. Betti, L. Cesareo, P.E. Chaudhry, A. Chikada, D. Collopy, R.S. Delston, B. Dobson, G.M. Dominguez Rodriguez, D. Follador, A. Gupta, R. Kinghorn, I. Lancaster, A. Pastore, E. Penz, M. Sonmez B. Stöttinger, H. Sudler, B.A. Sullivan, M. Tanji, S.C. Walls, P. Williams, J.M. Wilson, D. Yang, A.S. Zimmerman

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This book will be of interest to all those concerned with the EU, whether from the perspective of political science, law or economics. Under the shadow of the financial crisis, studies with a broad research perspective and contributors from diverse backgrounds are important.'- Paul Craig, St John s College, Oxford'The European Union is re-emerging from the most serious economic crisis in its history. The agenda of the European Commission was highly influenced by the decisions to handle the debt, euro, banking and financial crises. The Union and its single currency have become much stronger. Economic law and governance in the Union are now rather different. By reading this book you will see where and how.'- Siim Kallas, Former Vice President of the European Commission 2004-2014How has the EU's economic crisis affected the development of economic law in the Union? This book contributes to the debate by examining EU economic law from a contextual and policy-oriented perspective.The expert authors explore areas such as the EMU and the internal market, and emphasize the important fields of public procurement, taxation, and intellectual property rights. The investigation proceeds along themes such as harmonization, institutional interplay, non-economic values, and international actions. The authors conclude that, during the crisis, the attention of the Barroso Commission focused quite narrowly on the most urgent problems, failing to consider longer-term issues to spark off bold policy endeavours, and break inter-institutional blockages.This book is targeted at scholars, policy-makers and other practitioners, as well as students, interested in EU economic law, integration, and the economic crisis.Contributors: J. Faull, C. Geiger, F. Hoffmeister, M.S. Jansson, H. Kalimo, T. Lahti, I. Lejeune, M. Meulenbelt, K. Olkkonen, J. Salminen, A. Strub, J. Strupczewski, J. Vaario

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Sheds new light on European and regional book markets, the development of a public sphere and the impact of new media on intellectual, social, religious and political change. How do you become a citizen? Ever since printing was introduced, being a member of society increasingly involved reading and writing: for sociability and belonging, instruction and entertainment, profit and charity, spiritual awakening and political debate. Literary practices shaped and changed identities and the organisation of society during the Long Eighteenth Century. In Scandinavia, this happened locally, as well as transnationally - reading, writing and producing texts involved entanglements within and beyond the borders of the Northern European periphery of Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Focusing on 'literary citizenship', this volume uncovers the different ways in which engagements with print have mediated and established networks and communities, identities and agencies of multiple sorts in an interconnected media landscape. The result is a complex and intriguing history of the book in the Scandinavian region. This history is, on the one hand, influenced by a European market and tradition. On the other hand, it offers an important and different case of regional and local adaptation, marked by what has been termed a 'Northern Enlightenment'. This book will be of interest to scholars of European enlightenment studies and to those who are interested in the continuing debates surrounding print culture and history. This book is available in digital format as Open Access under the Creative Commons license CC-BY-NC. This book and the research upon which it is based was supported by funds from The Research Council of Norway and the National Library of Norway. CONTRIBUTORS: Jens Bjerring-Hansen, Jon Haarberg, Ruth Hemstad, Thor Inge Rørvik, Ellen Krefting, Karin Kukkonen, Ulrik Langen, Aina Nøding, Jonas Nordin, James Raven, Janicke S. Kaasa, Karen Skovgaard-Petersen, Frederik Stjernfelt, Iver Tangen Stensrud and Jonas Thorup Thomsen.

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How did Wagner's experiences in Paris influence his works and social character? And how does his sometime desire for recognition by the French cultural establishment square with his German national identity and with the related idea of a universally valid art? Friedrich Nietzsche more than once claimed that Wagner's only true home was in Paris. This book is the first major study to trace Wagner's relationship with Paris from his first sojourn there (1839-1842) to the Paris Tannhäuser (1861). How did Wagner's experiences in Paris influence his works and social character? How does his sometime desire for recognition by the French cultural establishment square with his German national identity and with the related idea of a universally valid art? This book presents Wagner's perennial ambition of an international operatic success in the "capital city of the nineteenth century" and the paradoxical consequences of that ambition upon its failure. Through an examination of previously neglected source materials, the book engages with ideas in the so-called "Wagner debate" as an ongoing philosophical project that tries to come to terms with the composer's Germanness. The book is in three main parts arranged broadly in chronological sequence. The first considers Wagner's earliest years in Paris, focusing on his own French-language drafts of Das Liebesverbot and Der fliegende Holländer. The second part explores his stance towards Paris "at a distance" following his return to Saxony and subsequent political exile. Arriving at Wagner's most often discussed "Paris period" (1859-61), the third part interrogates the concert performances under the composer's direction at the Théâtre-Italien and revisionist aspects of their reception. JEREMY COLEMAN is Lecturer in Music in the School of Performing Arts, Universityof Malta.

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The editors of this volume bring together an impressive cast of scholars on the critical relationship of democracy and governance in sustainable development. It offers an outstanding and timely contribution to the literatures in sustainability, political science, and comparative environmental politics.'- Daniel J. Fiorino, American University, US'This very timely and important collection draws together some of the world's leading thinkers on environment and development to debate one of the most important issues of our time: sustainable development. They very usefully remind us all that in order to be politically sustainable, the sustainability transition will have to find a way to maximise policy synergies in a democratically legitimate manner.'- Andy Jordan, University of East Anglia, UKThis insightful book deals with governance of the environment and sustainable development. The contributors explore the difficulties developed countries are experiencing in coming to terms with environmental limits and the resultant challenges to the democratic polity. They engage with different dimensions of the governance challenge including norms, public attitudes, citizen engagement, political conflict, policy design, and implementation, and with a range of environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity/nature protection, and water management. The book concludes with an essay by William Lafferty that explores the flawed character of the contemporary democratic polity and offers his reflections on possible pathways to reform.This book will interest researchers, academics, and graduate students in environmental politics and public policy. It is ideal for use as supplementary reading in a wide range of university courses, while NGOs and policy-makers will also find it of considerable value.Contributors: C. Aall, S. Baker, E. Bomberg, H.T.A. Bressers, P.-O. Busch, F.H.J.M. Coenen, K. Eckerberg, H. Jörgens, W.M. Lafferty, O. Langhelle, L.J. Lundqvist, J. Meadowcroft, G. Mullally, M. Narodoslawsky, A. Ruud, M.A. Schreurs

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This fourth edition of an enduring and popular book has been fully updated and revised, exploring the two opposing paradigms of sustainability in an insightful and accessible way. Eric Neumayer contends that central to the debate on sustainable development is the question of whether natural capital can be substituted by other forms of capital. Proponents of weak sustainability maintain that such substitutability is possible, whilst followers of strong sustainability regard natural capital as non-substitutable.The author examines the availability of natural resources for the production of consumption goods and the environmental consequences of economic growth. He identifies the critical forms of natural capital in need of preservation given risk, uncertainty and ignorance about the future and opportunity costs of preservation. He goes on to provide a critical discussion of measures of sustainability. Indicators of weak sustainability such as Genuine Savings and the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare - also known as the Genuine Progress Indicator - are analysed, as are indicators of strong sustainability, including ecological footprints, material flows and sustainability gaps.This book will prove essential reading for students, scholars and policymakers with an interest in ecological and environmental economics and sustainable development.Contents: Preface to the Fourth Edition 1. Introduction and Overview 2. Sustainable Development: Conceptual, Ethical and Paradigmatic Issues 3. Resources, the Environment and Economic Growth: Is Natural Capital Substitutable? 4. Preserving Natural Capital in a World of Risk, Uncertainty and Ignorance 5. Measuring Weak Sustainability 6. Measuring Strong Sustainability 7. Conclusions Appendix 1. How Present-value Maximisation Can Lead to Extinction Appendix 2. The Hotelling Rule and Ramsey Rule in a Simple General Equilibrium Model Appendix 3. The Hotelling Rule and the Ramsey Rule in a More Complex Model Bibliography Index

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The human rights issues have long played an important role in the strategies of, and the roles played by, corporations around the world. This book focuses on these issues from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The authors examine the nature of and the limits of human rights responsibilities of business. They explore whether the protection of human rights should play a role in the regulation of international trade by bodies like the World Trade Organization and examine the effectiveness of voluntary standards in the clothing textiles trade, mining, advertising and the pharmaceutical industry. Long thought to be the exclusive jurisdiction of governments, the relationship between business and human rights has emerged in the last two decades as one of the most pressing issues in the field of business ethics. Do corporations have human rights responsibilities? If so, what is that nature of those responsibilities and do they differ in any significant way from those of governments? Is it reasonable or realistic to expect corporations to respect human rights in environments where governments, particularly in the developing and underdeveloped world, need economic development and have a limited capacity and/or interest in enforcing human rights standards and laws? Integrating theory and practice, the authors include discussion of the debates leading to the creation of the ISO 26000 standard and the United Nations human rights framework for business entities. They also explore the implications of the current debate for international trade agreements and trade with China. Scholars and students in management, philosophy, political science, and sociology will find this volume a great resource, as will activists, managers and policy makers.Contributors include: J. Bishop, T. Campbell, C. Coumans, W. Cragg, B. Hamm, A. Macleod, P. Potter, C. Sampford, A. Wellington, F. Wettstein, S. Wood

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Social and emotional learning is at the heart of good teaching, but as standards and testing requirements consume classroom time and divert teachers' focus, these critical skills often get sidelined. In Sharing the Blue Crayon , Mary Anne Buckley shows teachers how to incorporate social and emotional learning into a busy day and then extend these skills to literacy lessons for young children. Through simple activities such as read-alouds, sing-alongs, murals, and performances, students learn how to get along in a group, empathize with others, develop self-control, and give and receive feedback, all while becoming confident readers and writers. As Buckley shares, Every day we ask young children to respectfully converse, question, debate, and collaborate about literature, science, math problems, history, and more. That's sophisticated stuff and requires sophisticated skills. Social and emotional skills are essential to helping children communicate their knowledge and articulate their questions. We must teach students how to build respectful, caring classroom communities, where students are supported and fully engaged in the learning and everyone can reach their potential.- In this fresh and original book, Buckley captures the humor, wonder, honesty, and worries of our youngest learners and helps teachers understand how to harness their creativity and guide their conversations toward richer expressions of knowledge. Teachers of special populations will especially appreciate Buckley's successful strategies for reaching English language learners and children from high-poverty homes who may not have strong foundations for academic discourse. As Buckley reminds us, By understanding one another-;orally and socially at first, then using those community-building exchanges to strengthen the skills of reading and writing-;we experience the authentic pride and sweet joys of learning, understanding, and connecting to one another.-

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A reassessment of the journey Germans in East and West have taken during the past two and a half decades: even today, an open-ended, unfinished journey. On October 3, 1990, just a year after the Berlin Wall fell, the German Democratic Republic was absorbed into the Federal Republic of Germany, officially ceasing to exist. What was the GDR and how do we remember it? According to the dominant Western narrative, it was a country that brought neither unity nor justice nor freedom to its citizens. But if so, why does a virtual wall still seem to exist in Germany today between the erstwhile citizens of the GDR and FRG? The GDR very much remains in the public debate, and while political integration is well on its way, the cultural integration of the two former states has proven much more challenging. This volume analyzes the culturaltransformation - or lack thereof - that has followed political unification. The contributions are interdisciplinary: essays on history and politics provide a framework and others on art, film, literature, museums, music, and education provide specific examples. These case studies allow us to examine the state of unification beyond statistics, opinion polls, and glib generalizations. The volume, then, is a reassessment of the journey Germans in East and West have taken during the past two and a half decades. Even today, it is an open-ended, unfinished journey. But such journeys tend to be the most interesting. Contributors: Kerstin Barndt, Stephen Brockmann, Michael Dreyer, Andreas Eis, April A. Eisman, Peter Hayes, Franziska Lys, Charles S. Maier, Andreas Niederberger, Mary-Elizabeth O'Brien, Daniel Ortuno-Stühring. Franziska Lys is Professor of German at Northwestern University. Michael Dreyer is Professor in the Institute for Political Science at the University of Jena.

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The original essays in Crimes of Colour explore the link between "race" and "crime" in the Canadian context. Much of the literature on race and crime to date has treated the category of "race" unproblematically; debate on this topic has focused primarily on the assumption that members of certain racial groups are most likely to commit crimes. In charting a different path, the authors in this collection provide critical and historical analyses of the connections between processes of "racialization" and "criminalization" in Canada. The book seeks to engage the reader in thinking critically about how conceptualizations of racial identity and crime are interwoven. The editors begin by arguing for a need to shift from an analysis of "race" to an analysis of "racialization" in order to create the space for new ways of looking at the connections between race and crime. They investigate the history of the treatment of racialized people in Canada, looking at the processes through which First Nations people, immigrants, and people of colour have been defined in racialized terms and the way in which state policy has racialized individuals and groups. The insights provided by the historical backdrop situates the problematic legal positions First Nations people and people of colour occupied vis-a-vis the criminal justice system. Contemporary analyses of "race" and crime continue to highlight the on-going, complex, and subtle nature of the issues. Understanding how individuals are racialized in the legal system forms one of the main themes in this collection. Specifically, these discussions involve identifying the processes through which racialized groups and individuals are criminalized. The processes of racialization and criminalization come together in many contexts including various criminal justice institutions like the police and social institutions like the media.

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HELPING THE GOOD DO BETTER pulls back the curtain on the corridors of power in Washington to reveal how social change really happens. This book offers lessons from the trenches on how some of this generation's most defining social issues-AIDS, disabilities, global poverty, cancer, human trafficking, national service, early childhood education, and social entrepreneurship -- engendered landmark federal policies. Each chapter tells the story of how a particular issue was shaped by the movements and legislation at the center of public debate. Each case provides powerful lessons about how coalitions are built, strategies crafted, and powerful interests challenged in high-stakes, no-holds-barred political battles. Doing good requires more than just providing programs and services. It requires coordination, organization, and a new, stronger emphasis on and dedication to advocacy. Participating in advocacy is no longer a luxury -- it is a necessity. Visionaries and activists together with "white hat" lobbyists -- people who understand the power of politics and who are able to put it to work to serve the public interest -- have won some of the most transformative policy fights in recent times. The culmination of those experiences, of fighting and winning on behalf of public interest causes, is presented here in a new theory for social change. Successful campaigns and movements must possess a lobbyist's combined approach to policy, politics, and press. Leveraging these 3 Ps, with true passion and discipline, can create results that are nothing short of awe-inspiring. An insightful first-person guide to advocacy by a white-hat lobbyist who was in the rooms where historic social changes were made, HELPING THE GOOD DO BETTER is a direct and honest look at government in action and the behind-the-scenes players who help make progress a reality.

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YOU WANT TO DO WELL AT UNI - NOW THERE'S A BOOK TO SUPPORT YOU. 'Everything you need to know to succeed in Higher Education' Gaye Conroy, University of Sussex'Great advice, strategies and models. I'd recommend it to our students' Sarah Speight, University of NottinghamTHE STUDY BOOK is a practical guide to developing the academic skills you need to succeed at university, college or any higher level study. Learn how to think, research, debate, write about, and apply information - and do all the things that will directly impact on your academic success from the moment you start.It guides you through activities and processes to help you examine your learning abilities and experiences so far. It will help you to understand your particular preferences and styles, your natural advantages as well as any specific weaknesses, and then guide you to build an effective personal approach to studying. You will learn what you need to do to do well in your course, like completing high quality assignments, writing essays, and showing off your full understanding in exams. Along the way you'll find emergency tips to inject into realistic situations like when struggling with the dynamics in a group-working situation, lost in planning a complex assignment, or getting stressed in the days before an exam. It contains specific reminders about academic conventions, definitions of terminology, useful checklists to support tasks, and simplified processes to keep you on track. There are insights from other students, example scenarios, and short case-studies, all designed to root the advice in real academic context, and keep you focused on what you need to do to keep improving.'A book that will help all students' Jeremy Dudman-JonesTHIS IS THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO TAKING ON THE CHALLENGE OF STUDYING - AND COMING OUT ON TOP.

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Overseas volunteering has exploded in numbers and interest in the last couple of decades. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people travel from wealthier to poorer countries to participate in short-term volunteer programs focused on health services. Churches, universities, nonprofit service organizations, profit-making "voluntourism" companies, hospitals, and large corporations all sponsor brief missions. Hoping to Help is the first book to offer a comprehensive assessment of global health volunteering, based on research into how it currently operates, its benefits and drawbacks, and how it might be organized to contribute most effectively. Given the enormous human and economic investment in these activities, it is essential to know more about them and to understand the advantages and disadvantages for host communities. Most people assume that poor communities benefit from the goodwill and skills of the volunteers. Volunteer trips are widely advertised as a means to "give back" and "make a difference." In contrast, some claim that health volunteering is a new form of colonialism, designed to benefit the volunteers more than the host communities. Others focus on unethical practices and potential harm to the presumed "beneficiaries." Judith N. Lasker evaluates these opposing positions and relies on extensive research—interviews with host country staff members, sponsor organization leaders, and volunteers, a national survey of sponsors, and participant observation—to identify best and worst practices. She adds to the debate a focus on the benefits to the sponsoring organizations, benefits that can contribute to practices that are inconsistent with what host country staff identify as most likely to be useful for them and even with what may enhance the experience for volunteers. Hoping to Help illuminates the activities and goals of sponsoring organizations and compares dominant practices to the preferences of host country staff and to nine principles for most effective volunteer trips.

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The Affordable Care Act’s impact on coverage, access to care, and systematic exclusion in our health care system The Affordable Care Act set off an unprecedented wave of health insurance enrollment as the most sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health insurance system since 1965. In the years since its enactment, some 20 million uninsured Americans gained access to coverage. And yet, the law remained unpopular and politically vulnerable. While the ACA extended social protections to some groups, its implementation was troubled and the act itself created new forms of exclusion. Access to affordable coverage options were highly segmented by state of residence, income, and citizenship status. Unequal Coverage documents the everyday experiences of individuals and families across the U.S. as they attempted to access coverage and care in the five years following the passage of the ACA.It argues that while the Affordable Care Act succeeded in expanding access to care, it did so unevenly, ultimately also generating inequality and stratification. The volume investigates the outcomes of the ACA in communities throughout the country and provides up-close, intimate portraits of individuals and groups trying to access and provide health care for both the newly insured and those who remain uncovered. The contributors use the ACA as a lens to examine more broadly how social welfare policies in a multiracial and multiethnic democracy purport to be inclusive while simultaneously embracing certain kinds of exclusions. Unequal Coverage concludes with an examination of the Affordable Care Act’s uncertain legacy under the new Presidential administration and considers what the future may hold for the American health care system. The book illustrates lessons learned and reveals how the law became a flashpoint for battles over inequality, fairness, and the role of government. More books on the health care debate

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Winner, 2021 Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize, given by the National Women's Studies Association Winner, 2021 Harry Levin Prize, given by the American Comparative Literature Association Winner, 2021 Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ Studies Argues that Blackness disrupts our essential ideas of race, gender, and, ultimately, the human Rewriting the pernicious, enduring relationship between Blackness and animality in the history of Western science and philosophy, Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World breaks open the rancorous debate between Black critical theory and posthumanism. Through the cultural terrain of literature by Toni Morrison, Nalo Hopkinson, Audre Lorde, and Octavia Butler, the art of Wangechi Mutu and Ezrom Legae, and the oratory of Frederick Douglass, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson both critiques and displaces the racial logic that has dominated scientific thought since the Enlightenment. In so doing, Becoming Human demonstrates that the history of racialized gender and maternity, specifically anti-Blackness, is indispensable to future thought on matter, materiality, animality, and posthumanism. Jackson argues that African diasporic cultural production alters the meaning of being human and engages in imaginative practices of world-building against a history of the bestialization and thingification of Blackness—the process of imagining the Black person as an empty vessel, a non-being, an ontological zero—and the violent imposition of colonial myths of racial hierarchy. She creatively responds to the animalization of Blackness by generating alternative frameworks of thought and relationality that not only disrupt the racialization of the human/animal distinction found in Western science and philosophy but also challenge the epistemic and material terms under which the specter of animal life acquires its authority. What emerges is a radically unruly sense of a being, knowing, feeling existence: one that necessarily ruptures the foundations of "the human."

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Demonstrates how race and power help to explain American religion in the twenty-first century When White people of faith act in a particular way, their motivations are almost always attributed to their religious orientation. Yet when religious people of color act in a particular way, their motivations are usually attributed to their racial positioning. Religion Is Raced makes the case that religion in America has generally been understood in ways that center White Christian experiences of religion, and argues that all religion must be acknowledged as a raced phenomenon. When we overlook the role race plays in religious belief and action, and how religion in turn spurs public and political action, we lose sight of a key way in which race influences religiously-based claims-making in the public sphere. With contributions exploring a variety of religious traditions, from Buddhism and Islam to Judaism and Protestantism, as well as pieces on atheists and humanists, Religion Is Raced brings discussions about the racialized nature of religion from the margins of scholarly and religious debate to the center. The volume offers a new model for thinking about religion that emphasizes how racial dynamics interact with religious identity, and how we can in turn better understand the roles religion—and Whiteness—play in politics and public life, especially in the United States. It includes clear recommendations for researchers, including pollsters, on how to better recognize moving forward that religion is a raced phenomenon. With contributions by Joseph O. Baker, Kelsy Burke, James Clark Davidson, Janine Giordano Drake, Ashley Garner, Edward Orozco Flores, Sikivu Hutchinson, Sarah Imhoff, Russell Jeung, John Jimenez, Jaime Kucinskas, Eric Mar, Gerardo Martí, Omar M. McRoberts, Besheer Mohamed, Dawne Moon, Jerry Z. Park, Z. Fareen Parvez, Theresa W. Tobin, and Rhys H. Williams.

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Standardized tests have become the gateway to higher education . . . but should they be?For more than seventy-five years, standardized tests have been considered a vital tool for gauging students’ readiness for college. However, few people—including students, parents, teachers, and policy makers—understand how tests like the SAT or ACT are used in admissions decisions. Once touted as the best way to compare students from diverse backgrounds, these tests are now increasingly criticized as being biased in favor of traditionally privileged groups. A small but growing number of colleges have made such testing optional for applicants.Is this the right way to go? Measuring Success investigates the research and policy implications of test-optional practices, considering both sides of the debate. Does a test-optional policy result in a more diverse student body or improve attainment and retention rates? Drawing upon the expertise of higher education researchers, admissions officers, enrollment managers, and policy professionals, this volume is among the first to investigate the research and policy implications of test-optional practices. Although the test-optional movement has received ample attention, its claims have rarely been subjected to empirical scrutiny. This volume provides a much-needed evaluation of the use and value of standardized admissions tests in an era of widespread grade inflation. It will be of great value to those seeking to strike the proper balance between uniformity and fairness in higher education. Contributors: Andrew S. Belasco, A. Emiko Blalock, William G. Bowen, Jim Brooks, Matthew M. Chingos, James C. Hearn, Michael Hurwitz, Jonathan Jacobs, Nathan R. Kuncel, Jason Lee, Jerome A. Lucido, Eric Maguire, Krista Mattern, Michael S. McPherson, Kelly O. Rosinger, Paul R. Sackett, Edgar Sanchez, Dhruv B. Sharma, Emily J. Shaw, Kyle Sweitzer, Roger J. Thompson, Meredith Welch, Rebecca Zwick

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Since the early twentieth century, Americans have associated oil with national security. From World War I to American involvement in the Middle East, this connection has seemed a self-evident truth. But as Peter A. Shulman argues, Americans had to learn to think about the geopolitics of energy in terms of security, and they did so beginning in the nineteenth century: the age of coal. Coal and Empire insightfully weaves together pivotal moments in the history of science and technology by linking coal and steam to the realms of foreign relations, navy logistics, and American politics. Long before oil, coal allowed Americans to rethink the place of the United States in the world. Shulman explores how the development of coal-fired, ocean-going steam power in the 1840s created new questions, opportunities, and problems for U.S. foreign relations and naval strategy. The search for coal, for example, helped take Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan in the 1850s. It facilitated Abraham Lincoln's pursuit of black colonization in 1860s Panama. After the Civil War, it led Americans to debate whether a need for coaling stations required the construction of a global island empire. Until 1898, however, Americans preferred to answer the questions posed by coal with new technologies rather than new territories. Afterward, the establishment of America's island empire created an entirely different demand for coal to secure the country's new colonial borders, a process that paved the way for how Americans incorporated oil into their strategic thought. By exploring how the security dimensions of energy were not intrinsically linked to a particular source of power but rather to political choices about America's role in the world, Shulman ultimately suggests that contemporary global struggles over energy will never disappear, even if oil is someday displaced by alternative sources of power.

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When a series of high school pranks get out of hand, teen witch Faye Faulkner is the only one who can solve the case in this spooky YA graphic novel Faye Faulker isn’t popular, and that’s just fine by her. She spends her lunches at the Loser Table with the other social rejects, aka her best friends, and brushes off the uninspired taunts from the cool kids. But when lonely freshman Cody finds her way to Faye’s corner of the cafeteria, it sets off a peculiar chain of events . . . To Cody’s surprise, these kids aren’t so bad; an overdramatic theater nerd, a handicapable girl in a wheelchair, an overweight boy, and Faye, who comes to school every day dressed like a witch. But it’s no costume, Fay really is a witch! While high school can be hell for many reasons, this year the ante has been raised when a series of pranks swiftly go from mischievous to downright dangerous. From the lowliest debate team nerds to the prom queen, no one is safe, not even the teachers! When things start to really get out of hand, Cody owns up to Faye: in a moment of desperation, she signed up for an online challenge that promises to grant popularity to those who follow the website’s twisted demands. Now Faye is faced with a choice: Reveal her witchy nature to Cody and help her or stand aside and keep her secret identity safe. Despite her misgivings, Faye takes on the case, but will her powers be strong enough to solve this mystery? And will people ever stop asking her if she puts newts’ eyes in her homemade baked goods? Witch for Hire is a gothic whodunnit about resilience, magic, and the power of friendship.

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Since the advent of the mantle plume hypothesis in 1971, scientists have been faced with the problem that its predictions are not confirmed by observation. For thirty years, the usual reaction has been to adapt the hypothesis in numerous ways. As a result, the multitude of current plume variants now amounts to an unfalsifiable hypothesis. In the early 21st century demand became relentless for a theory that can explain melting anomalies in a way that fits the observations naturally and is forward-predictive. From this the Plate hypothesis emerged–the exact inverse of the Plume hypothesis. The Plate hypothesis attributes melting anomalies to shallow effects directly related to plate tectonics. It rejects the hypothesis that surface volcanism is driven by convection in the deep mantle. Earth Science is currently in the midst of the kind of paradigm-challenging debate that occurs only rarely in any field. This volume comprises its first handbook. It reviews the Plate and Plume hypotheses, including a clear statement of the former. Thereafter it follows an observational approach, drawing widely from many volcanic regions in chapters on vertical motions of Earth's crust, magma volumes, time-progressions of volcanism, seismic imaging, mantle temperature and geochemistry. This text: Deals with a paradigm shift in Earth Science - some say the most important since plate tectonics Is analogous to Wegener's The Origin of Continents and Oceans Is written to be accessible to scientists and students from all specialities This book is indispensable to Earth scientists from all specialties who are interested in this new subject. It is suitable as a reference work for those teaching relevant classes, and an ideal text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students studying plate tectonics and related topics. Visit Gillian's own website at http://www.mantleplumes.org

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An insider's account of the rise of digital money and cryptocurrencies Dubbed "CryptoDad" for his impassioned plea to Congress to acknowledge and respect cryptocurrencies as the inevitable product of a fast-growing technological wave and a free marketplace, Chris Giancarlo is considered one of "the most influential individuals in financial regulation." CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money describes Giancarlo’s own reckoning with the future of the global economy—at the intersection of markets, technology, and public policy—and lays out the fight for a Digital Dollar. CryptoDad is Giancarlo's own personal story, detailing his forays into the world of Wall Street to his tenure as the 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where he pushed for the agency to recognize the digitization of markets. His growing fame as a Twitter presence in this essential debate has given Giancarlo a platform to makes a case for the future of cryptocurrencies as the natural successor to America’s current failing financial market infrastructure. CryptoDad provides readers with: A thorough exploration of digital change and how it affects the lives of everyone in a global economy A revolutionary consideration of regulatory responses to the rapid pace of technological innovation A call to update our aging financial organizations, particularly the infrastructure of money itself, and focus on renewed faith and confidence in free market innovation A foreword by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, two of the biggest names in cryptocurrencies CryptoDad argues that the next digital wave will be the coming Internet of Value, where cryptocurrencies will do the Internet of Information did to immaterial things: make them accessible, distributable, and movable instantly across the globe. This book is an ideal introduction to the importance of technology in the marketplace.

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